Copycat Coulter

By
July 6, 2006

Any student of Ann Coulter knows she’s never had an original thought about anything. Turns out she doesn’t write anything original either. Her prose is often copied from someone else without permission or attribution.

Well, Ann Coulter may be "liberal" in one respect, anyway. The New York Post reported Sunday that author/columnist Coulter "cribbed liberally in her latest book" and also in several of her syndicated columns, according to a plagiarism expert.

John Barrie, creator of the iThenticate plagiarism-probing system, claimed he found at least three examples of what he called "textbook plagiarism" in the new Coulter book "Godless" after he ran its text through the program.

He also discovered verbatim copying in Coulter’s weekly column, which is syndicated to more than 100 newspapers by Universal.

An article in yesterday’s New York Post confirms what we have been reporting here (via Raw Story and Rude Pundit) for several weeks: that Ann Coulter plagiarized sections of her new book. In fact, the Post article also found "patterns of cribbing" in Coulter’s Universal Press columns over the past 12 months.

In addition to being a plagiarist, Ann Coulter is currently facing a legal investigation for voter fraud in Palm Beach, Florida. Coulter may have lied about her address on her voter registration there. Yet, she recently announced on Hannity & Colmes that she lives in New York. As Brad Blog has noted, that may open her up to charges of tax fraud, as well.

Conservative scribe Ann Coulter cribbed liberally in her latest book, "Godless," according to a plagiarism expert.

John Barrie, the creator of a leading plagiarism-recognition system, claimed he found at least three instances of what he calls "textbook plagiarism" in the leggy blond pundit’s "Godless: the Church of Liberalism" after he ran the book’s text through the company’s digital iThenticate program.

He also says he discovered verbatim lifts in Coulter’s weekly column, which is syndicated to more than 100 newspapers, including the Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Sun-Sentinel and Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle.

UPDATE: The syndicate that distributes Coulter’s column said Thursday they will investigate on their own whether or not their columnist lifted material from others.

Universal Press Syndicate issued a statement this afternoon saying it might look into the plagiarism allegations against Ann Coulter in two possible ways.

“We’ll see what we can find on our own,” said Kathie Kerr, the syndicate’s director of communications, noting that Universal would use the information referenced in Sunday’s New York Post article. That story quoted John Barrie, creator of the iThenticate plagiarism-probing system, who said he had easily found several examples of alleged plagiarism in Coulter’s new “Godless” book and in her Universal columns from the past year. Several blogs had earlier found these and other examples.

Kerr added that Universal may also use a plagiarism-finding tool from Barrie’s company.